Chapter 242 - Watchers

Beth rushed along the street dragging her rolling luggage, several twelve packs of soda strapped on with some bungee ties.  'Why are there so many people on the streets? Who walks anywhere in America?" The closer she got to the light pillar the more people she had to navigate through.  In the end, she was forced to push and weave her way through a growing crowd.  Then she made it to the light itself.  All around the fifteen foot in diameter beam of light people were crowded.  She watched as one girl probably in her mid teens who really should have been in school right then tentatively poke the tips of a few fingers into the light then yanked it back.  She paused to examine her hand then stuck her whole hand in slowly.  Everyone seemed to be watching.  A guy standing beside her looking to be about the same age glanced at her hand in the light then jumped forward to stand in it.